“ADHD doesn’t make you awesome. I’m ADHD and I’m not awesome.”

My little brother said this to me this morning, and it made me want to cry.

ADHD people are my favorite. How can you not SEE yourselves?

You are the coolest, most compassionate, most enjoyable people to be around! Let me show you why you deserve those superlatives:

Reasons why ADHD makes you AWESOMER:

You care more. About life. About everything. You don’t give in to apathy. You are hard-wired for intensity. =) This makes you a blast to be around. 

You don’t get attached to tasks, so when someone needs you, it’s easy for you to drop what you’re doing and run to the rescue. This is freaking AMAZING. You have your priorities straight.

You’re smarter. You switch tasks constantly because you crave new information. Then you remember that information, connecting it to other things you know until your mind has amassed a labyrinth of endless possibilities. =) 


Maybe the reason all our geniuses failed out of school wasn’t because they were lazy. Maybe it was because their minds jumped all the time. Maybe that jumping is what allowed them to be geniuses.

 And speaking of lazy, you’re not. How could anyone think you’re lazy when you are so persistent? ADHD people are the hardest working, most driven people I know. 


You’re funnier. You make learning fun by making hilarious jokes out of straightjackets like math. =) You're funnier because you’re smarter, and because you have a broader amount of experiences and words to draw on for material.  To quote my 10 year old ADHD brother: “Why did the chicken cross the road? Well, if you describe it as a state function, it doesn’t matter.”

You believe in yourself! (and yet, you are humble) You have big eyes for big projects. Ooooh, you love a challenge! But you don’t let yourself believe you’ve done well unless you accomplished the goal you set out to fix. Well, sometimes the problems are bigger than you. Choosing an unsolvable problem doesn’t make you inadequate. =) 


You are so hard on yourself you don’t let yourself take breaks often enough. Go swing on a swing, sink your feet in the beautiful cool grass, and take a nap. You’ve totally earned it.

You will never be boring. I recently hiked across two totally different trees—a cottonwood and a juniper—that had grown together. Their trunks had fused together so completely that they formed a single column. White on black, soft on rough, evergreen on deciduous. Watching them locked together in their silent eternal dance, suddenly the whole world reminded me of you. 

      You and the world are both an endless stream of beautiful impossible secrets awaiting discovery in rarely trodden places. You will never run out of ways to surprise me... You’re excited by everything. You want to understand it all. Because of this, we will never grow old. The world holds too much joy for you to ever not see it with as much awe as you felt the first day you came.


You will never lose your inner child. You don’t understand social norms, so you don’t participate in them. This is OK. Social norms are pointless games we play to prove to others we're grown up. But no one really wants to grow up. Some people are just better than others at pretending they like neckties and itchy pants more than sit-and-spins. You like sit-and-spins. You’re not afraid to play with them in public the moment the opportunity presents itself. 

      When you go home, please don’t be embarrassed that you jumped in and took advantage of the moment. Everyone else goes home regretting that they didn’t.

You never sit still. Heard you described once as “an unstoppable dynamo of human energy.” You’ll never get fat. And kids love you because you can keep up with them forever.

You never sit still internally either. Craving change leads you to opportunities for personal growth that would terrify most people. But you have the courage of an astronaut. You love growing. You NEED to challenge, to explore, to understand. In combination with your thirst for equilibrium, this is inspirational. It’s like you come with a warranty guaranteeing that you will make the world a better place, and leave this world a better person.

Willing to take risks. I thought all my brothers were going to grow up to be storm chasers. You wonderful ADHD people never let a risk rob you of an amazing opportunity to experience something new and exciting.

You forget things sometimes. This means I get to tell you stories and jokes two or three times before they get old. This is GREAT for me as a girl, because I LOVE to talk, and you listen every time. =)

If it’s really important to me for you to remember, I know to write it down. And that’s fun too, because then I get to draw you notes with smiley faces on them. And I like drawing smiley faces. The more smiley faces I get to draw, the better my day gets.

Strong sense of what is fair. Injustice rattles your bones. You don’t always stand up for yourself, but holy cow… when you come to someone else’s rescue? It’s a beautiful thing to behold. Watch out momma grizzly.

You are flexible and forgiving. Because you get it… you’ve been there.

You’re late a lot. I love this for two reasons: 

  Firstly, you are good at being where you are. Experiencing the present moment RIGHT NOW is a BIG deal to you. That’s why you’re late in the first place… it’s hard for you to surrender the present moment in anticipation of the next one. 

  Secondly, you being late reminds me that time with you is precious. That I want you to be here. That life is fragile and you might not always be around, and if you ever weren’t I would miss you terribly. THEN when you are here, you flex your talent of being Present... and every moment becomes a glorious adventure.

You need free time all by yourself. Which means I get free time too.

You are SO wise. Because you CARE. Because you have a strong sense of what is fair. Because you love experiences and you’re willing to take risks to get them. And because you can connect ideas easily. You always have a unique perspective that makes struggles easier.

Everything is beautiful to you. http://xkcd.com/877/. Even me. ^_^

3 simple realizations 

that have made my relationship with you better when it gets a little hard 
(as all relationships do):